Re: Michael Crichton dies

[dinoboygraphics@aol.com]

> > > That being said, he was also the enemy of Science and scientific 
thinking
during the last decade of his life. <<<

To be fair, this wasn't a sudden turn of events; as much as I enjoy his 
novels, they are laced with anti-science and anti-scientific method 
philosophy.  That includes the JP novels; the first one was more subtle 
in its "scientists are irresponsible frankenstein-monster creators with 
no judgement" theme that is a common character-foil, while the second 
JP was much more overt, ending the novel with a full frontal assault on 
scientific inference, even questioning the reality atomic theory 
because you "can't see" sub-atomic particles.

For Crichton's fiction work I would create the new genre 
"technofiction" rather than say he wrote science fiction.

Cheers,


Scott Hartman
Science Director
Wyoming Dinosaur Center
110 Carter Ranch Rd.
Thermopolis, WY 82443
(800) 455-3466 ext. 230
Cell: (307) 921-8333

www.skeletaldrawing.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. <tholtz@umd.edu>
To: ddkrentz@charter.net; MKIRKALDY@aol.com
Cc: dinosaur@usc.edu
Sent: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 6:28 am
Subject: RE: Michael Crichton dies



> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu]
> On Behalf Of David Krentz
>
>
> I think we all owe a lot to Crichton, JP was a huge influence
> on a new generation of scientists, artists and closet
> dino-enthusiasts world wide (movie and book).

That being said, he was also the enemy of Science and scientific 
thinking
during the last decade of his life. His irresonsible promotion of
non-scientific counterclaims against climate and paleoclimate research
reached the very highest levels of power: "State of Fear" was required
reading by Senator Inhofe's (himself a climate change denier) Senate
Committee on Environment and Public Works. When George W. Bush wanted to
meet with a climate expert he didn't get a climatologist from NOAA or 
NASA
or a paleoclimatologist from USGS. Instead, he brought in Crichton.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661

Faculty Director, Earth, Life & Time Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite/
Fax: 301-405-0796

Mailing Address:    Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
           Department of Geology
           Building 237, Room 1117
           University of Maryland
           College Park, MD 20742 USA